


Date Night

by OutOfPracticeYall



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Cheesy, Dancing, Date Night, Dating, Fluff, Gay, Jealousy, Kissing, Love, M/M, Post-Divorce, Romance, alcohol reference, but no actual drinking, dance, just a little bit, my dadsona
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 02:35:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13537878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutOfPracticeYall/pseuds/OutOfPracticeYall
Summary: With Mary having the children stay at her place for the first time, Joseph and Garrett (My Dadsona) finally get to have a date night at the Christiansen house. But it's not long before thing don't go to plan.





	Date Night

**Author's Note:**

> Garrett Connelly is my Dadsona, if you want to know more about him you can find out more on my tumblr, he's also the Dadsona I feature in my story Building Bridges

Tonight was Mary’s first time having the kids stay over at her place, which meant that tonight would be Garrett’s and Joseph’s first opportunity to have a stay in date night over at Joseph’s house. Of course, it wouldn’t be their real first date night. They’d been together on the down low for weeks now, carefully tiptoeing around the children, the neighbours and everyone else Joseph so happened to know, because he wasn’t ready to face the public just yet and Garrett was fine with that.

So they had a lot of dates in restaurants across town, or in the safety of the darkness of the cinema, or sneaking over to Garrett’s place in the evenings whenever someone was free to babysit. In a way, this was nothing new and yet completely different. For this time it was Joseph putting in the effort for Garrett and that made him feel all fuzzy inside.

In fact, it had made it very difficult for Garrett to concentrate at work at all. He finished at 5 pm- a painstakingly long time to wait when Joseph had given him the spare key. It had his heart leaping whenever he idly ran his fingers along its ridges during his work’s slow hours. Garrett was a very safe driver, too safe according to Amanda, but he may have been just a little reckless to get back that bit quicker tonight. 

During the drive, he considered nipping home to change into something more presentable than his white-collar work clothes, but that wasn’t really the point of stay in date nights. Joseph and he were past getting all dressed up for each other, it was much more relaxing and intimate just being able to turn up falling apart and have their boyfriend tell them they’re handsome anyways.

By the time Garrett arrived he was giddy with anticipation. He pulled into his own driveway, shut off the car and made sure no one was around before stepping out the car. There was no need to be so precautious about being seen going into Joseph’s, as far as everyone knew they were good friends, but sneaking over gave Garret a rush. Like he was sneaking into his high school sweetheart’s bedroom whilst their parent’s watched TV downstairs. 

As instructed, he let himself in through the door and was met by quiet. The living room lights were turned off and there was no sign of Joseph. Garrett almost thought he’d forgotten about tonight until he noticed the bottle of white wine and pair of tall glasses sitting on the coffee table. He also noted that Joseph had brought out extra cushions for comfort and a fresh, fluffy blanket was hung across the back of the sofa. Nice and cosy. He shrugged off his coat and hung it by the door. “Joseph?”

“Shoot!” Garrett heard him curse from the kitchen, along with something clattering. “Hold on, honey!”

It was almost too tempting to go in and sneak a look at whatever Joseph was doing, but he appeared in the doorway before the thought had fully formed in Garrett’s mind.

“You’re back early.”

“No, I’m back on time.” He replied amused and tapped his wristwatch as if Joseph could actually read it from across the room.

“I’m not ready yet.” Joseph mock sulked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Leave.”  
“Excuse me?”

“Leave.” He repeated.

Garrett could only laugh. “Baby, I’m not leaving. You shouldn’t have given me a key if you didn’t want me just walking in.”

“I _lent_ you a key.” Joseph retorted, but Garrett could tell he was giving in, the corners of his lips were already curling into a smile and as soon as Garrett start stepping towards the other man his arms were out to him. After years of an unhappy marriage and a divorce, Joseph was needy for physical and emotional affection, there was only so long he could go without wanting to hold his partner.

He let Joseph slip his arms around his waist and secure him against himself, whilst Garrett’s own arms rested around Joseph’s shoulders so his hands could find their way into the Blond curls of hair. He stole a quick kiss before asking, “So, what’s the plan for tonight.”

“Well. I was thinking-” Joseph kissed Garrett again clearly not content with just one and let his lips trail down along his jawline to the soft skin of Garrett’s neck. “We’d start with dinner, a little wine, watch a movie, see where the night takes us.”

Each suggestion was punctuated with another kiss against Garrett’s neck, “You’ve thought of everything.”

“Mmhm even bought mood lighting.”

Garrett snorted. He pulled away just enough to look Joseph in the face. “You- What?”

“Yeah look,” Joseph moved out of Garrett hold, sounding just a little too proud as he switched on the lights to the living. The bulbs had indeed been changed to favour a dimmer and warmer glow.

“Babe,” Garrett grinned, trying to contain his amusement. Despite how ridiculous it was, the idea that Joseph went out and bought mood lighting for tonight warmed his heart. “You’re a dork.”

Joseph pouted in response yet once again it was short-lived as he was distracted by a knock at the door. Garrett looked at him quizzically. “Ah, that would be dinner.” He admitted sheepishly before going to answer the door.

Garrett stared at him dumbfounded. Was this why Joseph had wanted him to leave, he didn’t want him to know that Joseph was ordering dinner instead of cooking it? This information both amused and astounded him. He waited quietly whilst Joseph paid, thanked the delivery man and accepted a large bag of food.

“Joseph Christiansen!” As Garrett spoke the other man was already retreating into the kitchen, “Were you going to let me think you had cooked this meal and completely undermine the hard labour of the food industry?”

After not receiving an answer, Garrett followed him into the kitchen, where he was already sorting through the boxes by the kitchen counter. Garrett stopped and tapped his foot loudly, putting on his best stern dad attitude. Nothing. He cleared his throat impatiently.

“Okay! Fine.” Joseph threw his hands up turning around to face his lover. His cheeks were ruddy with embarrassment. “I was maybe not going to tell you I ordered the food-” Garrett gasped dramatically- “But I was only because I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t taking this seriously and I want to spend tonight with you, not in here cooking.”

Well, Garrett couldn’t deny those were two very good motives for not telling him. He rolled his eyes, this only reaffirmed his earlier thoughts- that he was dating a total dork.

“Let me help then, it’ll make things go quicker.”

Together they got dinner ready, Joseph had ordered from their usual steakhouse and if he was honest that alone would have tipped Garrett off that it had been a takeaway. They had gotten into the habit of ordering from this particular place when they spent the evenings at Garrett’s, for he was no cook no matter how hard he tried to learn.

They sat together at the table and chatted about their relative days, Joseph was able to put saying grace aside for date nights. Puts damper the mood. Garrett never really had much news in terms of his work days, working at a desk as a mindless cog in a company’s machine wasn’t exactly exciting. So he spent most of these conversations just enjoying listening to Joseph stories about the Youth club, Sunday school or any other church activities he was volunteering at. Tonight he’d been doing arts and crafts with the younger kids, part of him was sad that his own children weren’t there to participate but for the most part, he gushed about how creative his flock was getting. He also lamented on how he had to put everything away by himself again and how there was going to be glitter in the hall for weeks.

“Shall we move to the living room then? Crack open the wine?” Joseph asked when it was clear that neither of them was able to eat any more food.

Garrett was happy to accept the offer. The dining chairs were doing nothing for his back, which was already aching after a long day’s work hunched over an office chair. As he stretched back against the soft plush cushions his spine gave off several loud and satisfying cracks.

“Oh honey,” Joseph cooed as he sat down next to Garrett, instead of reaching for the wine his hands came to rest on the other man’s shoulders, guiding him to turn away from him and rubbing firm circles into the tense muscle. It made Garrett melt whenever Joseph did this, he was almost certain the man had taken classes. How else could he be so good at it?

A soft hum escaped his lips as Garrett lent back against Joseph's chest, taking hold of his wrists and pulling other man’s arms around him so he could settle there. The stress of a full day’s work was taking its effect on Garrett and he suddenly felt heavy and tired, he breathed a sigh as Joseph rested his chin against his shoulder, “We won’t need the wine and movie at this rate.”

“I’m down for an early night if that’s what you need.”

Before Garrett had a chance to respond, he heard Joseph’s phone start ringing, for a moment they both just stared at it as if they had no idea what it was. Joseph gave a protesting grumble as he struggled to reach the phone without moving away from his partner.

“Hello?” He answered, doing his best not to sound disappointed about being interrupted. “No, I’m at home... Yes, Mary has the children tonight.”  
Garrett couldn’t quite hear the other person, but he could deduce the owner of the muffled voice was not Mary given Joseph’s last reply. He sat up and faced Joseph; curious as to whom he was on the phone with.

“I, um,” He stammered, glancing in Garrett’s direction. “No, I’m not busy, but I was planning to spend tonight to myself.”

There was a pang of pain in Garrett’s chest at that comment. He understood that coming out to people this late in his life was difficult to Joseph and respected his want to wait, but still, he couldn’t help the hurt he felt every time Joseph lied about them being together.

“There’s no one else that can- Oh that’s awful... Okay,” He heaved a sigh, “I’ll be there.”

“You’ll be there?” Garrett parroted when Joseph hung up, unable to hide the irritation in voice. Joseph’s gaze dropped to his lap where his fingers fidgeted with his phone, normally Garrett would find this behaviour somewhat endearing and it would become a game to find out what Joseph was hiding, but right now, Garrett was just frustrated with it. “Joseph, who was that?”

“That was Liz, from the church.” He mumbled the words like a child being told off.

“And?”

“And she needs help there tonight with the dance class for the elderly she hosts in the hall. She usually has help from friends but they’re sick and she said she’s already called everyone else.”

Garrett exhaled deeply trying to fight against the building lump in his throat and stood up. He wanted to tell him not to leave, that he promised tonight was just for them, but he knew it was pointless. Joseph couldn’t not help someone in need. “Fine, we’ll both go.”

“What?” 

“We’ll both go.” Garrett reaffirmed as he moved to pick his coat back up from the rack near the door. “You said she needed help and I’m suddenly free, so we’re both going.”  
He expected some sort of protest from Joseph, but instead, the other man reluctantly stood up and followed Garrett’s lead.

  
*

  
Garrett did not like Liz. He didn’t really have a reason, well, not one she could help anyways. Joseph had been divorced for months now and as far as Liz knew, he was still single. It was only natural that a few of the single women from church would take an interest in him and she was one of them. What’s worse, Joseph seemed to be completely oblivious to it. Garrett wasn’t sure he wanted to inform Joseph of her attractions or not, they weren’t anything like what Craig suffered through. She was just a friend fumbling over her crush. Sometimes Garrett wondered whether he was imagining it.

Other times, like tonight, he was sure of it. In fact, he was almost certain Liz’s friends weren’t ill at all and this was a setup. The old people’s bi-weekly dance class wasn’t exactly romantic, but still, a dance is a dance and funny things happened to people when they dance together. Garrett danced once with Joseph and ended up drinking margaritas and fantasizing about running away to the beaches with him. And it wasn’t even a real dance. It was dad dancing.

“So, what’s our story?” Joseph asked as they sat in his car, in the church car park. They had been sitting in the quiet for what felt like a long while as Garrett had been waiting for him to ask it. Of course, they needed a story.

“Just say you knocked on my door and asked if I was free. It’s that simple.”

“Garrett,” Joseph’s hand gently reached out to turn Garrett’s chin to face himself. “We’re okay, right?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Garrett replied and when Joseph showed no sign of being comforted by it, he leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Promise.”

Inside the hall, classical music was already playing on the church’s old CD player that wasn’t quite loud enough to fill the place and there were several old folks coupled up and swaying to the melody. Liz spotted Joseph and Garrett immediately and beamed at them, waving them both over to where she stood talking with an elderly man and woman.

“Oh, Joseph!” She greeted Joseph first because of course she did, “I’m so glad you could make it, I was afraid I’d be by myself tonight, you’d be surprised how rowdy these guys get when they’re unattended.”

Joseph laughed, Garrett, rolled his eyes. It was hard to contain his sour attitude given that he didn’t believe a word out of her mouth. Liz instructed them briefly on their duties, which was simply to monitor the old folk, make sure no one keeled over or got too frisky for the Lord’s house and if they knew anything about dance, instruct them in it. Garrett knew enough not to stand on his partner’s feet and that was it. 

For a good while the three of them just milled around the hall doing a lot of nothing as the slow instrumental music droned on and the dancers crawled around the hall. It hurt his feet to be stood this long; Garrett didn’t know how the class could still be going without someone’s hip giving out.

Eventually, Liz paused the music and announced, “Okay guys, we’re going to work on our waltz now. Oh, Joseph, help me out will you?”

And there it was. Garrett's stomach twisted, as Liz didn’t even wait for a reply, she strode over to Joseph and guided his hand to her waist and held his other one in her own. All he could do was watch helplessly on the other side of the hall as his boyfriend waltzed with someone else, and what’s worse, Joseph didn’t even seem fazed by it.

He was shaken from his thoughts by a small tugging on his sleeve. The source of which was a short elderly lady, who had apparently crept up on him.

“Mind if I have this dance?” She smiled at him oblivious to the torment he was hiding within.

“Sure,” Garrett replied, he didn’t have the energy to attempt being charming for her but the least he could do was entertain the old dear with a waltz. If anything it meant he didn’t have to stare uselessly at Liz and Joseph.

It was another painful fifteen minutes before the class was finally over and the bus arrived to escort the now tired old folk home leaving just the three of them outside as Liz locked up.

“So, any plans for the evening?” Liz asked, the question clearly directed towards Joseph, it was like she couldn’t even see Garrett. “Because if you’re free we could grab a coffee.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to decline, I’m put out, besides I’m Garrett’s ride home.” Joseph seemed to struggle to get the excuse out as if it physically pained him not to be able to a constant people pleaser.

“Maybe another time then?” She pressed.

Garrett couldn’t stand listening to them anymore, he couldn’t take hearing Joseph enviably agree to coffee because he didn’t know how to say no. “I’ll wait by the car.” He huffed, turned on his heel and stalked away from them.

 

The ride back to Joseph’s was quiet. Garrett had regretted getting so antsy almost immediately, he felt childish and wanted to apologise but he didn’t know where to begin without it coming out a mess. So he spent the drive formulating his words and decided to properly apologise once they were inside.

This plan didn’t work, for as soon as the door was shut behind them, Joseph was holding him tight and pressing a long and hungry kiss to his lips. Garret clung to the other man, feeling all his tension wash away as the physical attention assured him that Joseph was his and only his. Liz could flirt with Joseph all she wanted, but she couldn’t have this.

“No more interruptions, I promise,” Joseph mumbled as his lips travelled down over Garrett’s neck peppering soft kisses everywhere he could.

It was almost enough to completely ease the knot in his stomach but there was still something Garrett was just earning to do that kisses couldn’t solve. “Baby,” Garrett whispered against Joseph’s ear, “Dance with me.”

“Gladly.” Joseph lead Garret by the hands across the living room to his stereo and began searching through his CDs, for a brief moment Garrett was afraid Joseph was about to play Jimmy Buffett, much to his relief the song that played was a soft instrumental. It was one he didn’t recognise but was at least a little more upbeat than one at the church hall. Joseph made a dramatic display of bowing and holding his hand out to the other man, with a broad smile playing about his features “May, I have this dance?”

It was an infectious smile, one that Garrett caught immediately as he took his hand, “You may.”

Being taller Joseph, he naturally led them in what started off as something resembling a waltz but quickly devolved into the pair of them just swaying to the music, hip to hip, cheek to cheek.  Garrett let his eyes slip closed as he leaned his weight against Joseph’s chest.

“Joe?” 

Joseph hummed in response.

“Is it selfish, if I don’t want you to dance with anyone but me?” He felt his heartbeat spike as he forced the question passed his lips. “At least not like this.”

He heard Joseph breathe an amused sigh, “No, honey, it’s not. I’ll save all my dances for you as long as you keep asking me to.”


End file.
